Thoughts on the Expansion?

I'm really enjoying building for Waterways, as I've never played firestorm in PvP before. I don't really have the cards for it, so that's a fun eye-opener. It's vey interesting to see what everyone else brings, and watch a new meta develop!

 

Waterways is... interesting. I think if it came later on when we had more access to the new Fly blessing it would be more balanced.

I'm wondering what it would be like to take that map, expand it a little bit (so you can't Teleport Self on the VP spot on the first move), and add bridges around the outside (so you can move around, but it is extremely slow and inefficient). Think that would open up more strategies with Sprint and Wild Run and such. Could make it devolve into NS + Team Run builds, but I'm not sure. Right now there's only really two or three builds that are viable on it. Firestorm, Teleport (Greenguard Boots), and the new Fly Blessing (or Fly Aura but that usually gets removed from FS fairly quickly).

I'd say it is the weakest of all the League stuff. I really enjoy Chess and Geomancy is great (although the 20 min time limit is brutally long, and a few of the cards are OP -- like having Thunderclap early or double Accelerate Time).

 

I've loved what I've done so far. I've only played the first of the SP adventures, but have done the two leagues with prebuilt decks (and the other two interest me, but I'm not sure I have the proper MP setups for them). I've found the leagues very fun, and the Artifact weapon one is just hilarious! Very happy with this expansion.

 

Yeah, the Artifact Anarchy one is just that -- anarchy.

You'd be surprised at how well you could probably do in the constructed decks. There are a lot of new players in it too -- if you've finished the basic campaign and have a few decent items (Bejeweled Shortsword, Slippery Shield / Twisting Shield) you can usually scrape by 2nd or 3rd place from what I've seen.

 

I'm enjoying it in a sadistic sort of way. Rust Monsters are my new hated foe.

And my first encounter with the Troll King ended with a brilliant game of cat & mouse between him and my 2 HP warrior, who spent I don't know how many turns running and hiding until he'd cycled Almighty Hack and a few Parries, hit the King hope to Parry and run away again. Most fun I've had in CH for sometime.

 

I actually think Waterways is quite good in that it pushes very different unique builds. I have a build that I've used on it that is much unlike anything I've seen people use (or that people have written about) but it has won consistently and easily. The build only has 1 Legendary, 3 Epics and 8 Rares (and the Legendary and 1 Epic are entirely non essential to the build). I actually think it gives an opportunity for people who can't win as easily in normal combat (because they lack high end weapons) to compete. Thus I've never lost my pod for Waterways, even using mostly commons/uncommons but I've yet to be able to match up with higher ranked players in Chess which tends to favor the same players that are at the top in MP IMO.

I do love the fixed deck leagues as then everyone has the same items (even though anarchy drives me crazy!).

 

I'd like to see that build. What I have seen people use is either Whirlwind or Firestorm; anything else like priests+ warriors gets crushed. But hey.

 

I run a 1-1-1 with a priest with many Wings Of Faith. It works very well:
http://forums.cardhunter.com/threads/league-wicked-waterways.5670/

 

I honestly think 2 Priests + 1 Warrior or even all Priests would be the best. Barring the enemy gets a ton of WW/WWE you could easily get Wings of Faith and just go smash some faces in.

 

Yeah. If I get one more Golden Wings I would be happy to take away my wizard and run a 2 priests + 1 warrior build. They are tougher against FS and there's always the chance that they land near an enemy's wizard with an opponent's ww/wwe

 

Yep. I've played 16 or 17 games and only lost 3 times. Every time it was due to Wings of Faith or a REALLY lucky WW/WWE (he WW'd right on top of the VP spot and put one of my guys next to his fighter where I just died).

The main problem with Waterway is that Wings of Faith is really rare right now since it is only found on Rare+ items and we just got the new content. If this map came out a few months from now it would have a lot more diverse builds and would be a lot more interesting.

 

I've loved all the new levels, the thrill of brutal effects that rust monsters and mind flensers bring, but what is with that last last mission? You vs some dragon with all the best cards: bonkers blocks, bonkers armor, bonkers slows, bonkers dps, and a million hit points? It's not an enemy its a lazy pile of the best cards. A serious, severe low point in my history with this game. Lousy, severely lazy, uncharacteristically sloppy design.

 

I guess Blizkenripper is meant as the fearsome end boss the player feels relieved to have finally won against and not as a quick part of a daily grind, as easily dispatched as Xanthicius by veteran players. It's the last boss in a string of intentionally very hard, optional and separately purchased battles for advanced, experienced players with tons of great items. If it can't be very demanding, unfair and hair loss -inducing, what can? It's the ultimate challenge even our toughest builds may end up struggling against.

I think it's good the game has something that is genuinely hard for anyone. It's like the hardest bosses in Demon's / Dark Souls. You hate to play them but love having beaten them.

I totally get what you're saying, though, I was very frustrated with the battle also and had to fight it again and again to finally win.

 

I like that too and I also enjoyed Dark Souls because of how hard it is, you are right there. The only problem is that, in this case, it doesn't have too much replay value. It's not as in Dark Souls, where you can start again the game focusing on magic instead of strength, for example. I mean, it felt good to finally be able to beat that darn dragon, but I would probably never play that module, nor the other new 18 level ones again, because of the insane difficulty. I prefer to farm in the much easier, older level 17 adventures, as I have a single build that I don't have to change in order to complete all of them.

 

Well, if they made the "restart challenge" official with rewards (you start new characters and only use items you find in adventures and such) then there'd be replayability. There's a lot that they could do to spice up single player and add replayability and variety to the game... so much work and so little time or people working on it though.

 

You mean The Nudie Run? I loved that idea, and still play it once in a while. It would be better with some kind of reward, of course. That will attract more players.

 

Yes, essentially a modified Nudie Run where there was a prize of some kind at the end. Maybe a special figure or even pizza / a Legendary treasure chest (step up from Epic).

 

I would love that

 

What's to stop you from challenging yourself to come up with a different build that can defeat Blizkenripper? Players have listed at least four pretty different ones already. There's replayability in that. Also, I found that a build I thought was great against it didn't work a second time. Sure, a player beat the alabaster dragon once, but can she do it again with the same build? Again, replayability.

Sometimes it's enough to have beaten the hardest bully the game can throw at you for that one, special time that'll stick in your memory. It's enough to know it's there, waiting for you, for when you're feeling up to the challenge again. Not every battle needs to be repeated or repeatable daily. Blue Manchu is not building bite-sized fodder for us grinders, they're building varied experiences. Having something on their menu which can make you gag and choke for a long while seems fair enough to me.

Some, actually many, of my most memorable gaming experiences I've never repeated and haven't wished to. I'm still glad to have played through them.

 

I get that there isn't currently necessarily much within the game systems to motivate you to fight the scourge of Cardhuntria again. It would be nice if there was. For me, the (false) information that the Loot Fairy was again in Blizkenripper's lair was enough to make me do it. Someday the little imp will travel there again and Blackhammer is already laughing at me...